Delco lawmaker wants state to aid in planning of 911 Centers

A Delaware County legislator has plans to introduce a bill that would help counties receive guidance from a state agency on ways to consolidate and regionalize their 911 Center services.

State Rep. Steve Barrar, R-160, of Upper Chichester, has plans to introduce legislation in Harrisburg this week which would authorize the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to provide counties with assistance in planning for the consolidation and regionalization of 911 Centers.

Barrar, majority chairman of the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, circulated a co-sponsorship memorandum last week and said he would formally introduce the bill in the state House sometime this week.

The bill would encourage consolidation, regionalization and joint purchasing opportunities of funding for 911 Centers, also known as Public Safety Answering Points, so counties can save money on their operations. It would also eliminate funding for 911 Center carryover costs beyond fiscal year 2013-2014 to ensure solvency in the state’s wireless 911 fund. For example, it is projected that $68 million of this year’s $109 million fund will be payments for prior year’s costs, according to Barrar’s memo.

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“Without making this correction in statute the fund will go bankrupt,” he wrote.

A similar bill was introduced by former state Rep. Tony Payton, D-Philadelphia, in the 2011-2012 legislative session. While the bill passed in the state House, it failed in the Senate.

So how does this relate to Delaware County?

Delaware County has been experiencing a shortfall in funding for its 911 Center in recent years. It is an issue that county officials often cite as one of the largest cost drivers when preparing the county budget.

There is a $1 monthly reimbursement fee for every landline and every cellphone line; however, the county does not always receive the entire amount of cellphone line reimbursements, according to county officials.

While the fees for landline phones come directly back to the county, cellphone fees are sent to a fund set up at the state level and then distributed back to counties across the state. In addition, the amount of landline customers has decreased significantly in recent years because more people have relied on cellphones.

It costs about $14 million a year to operate the county’s 911 Center. For the fiscal year 2012-2013, county officials have projected a shortfall of about $3.5 million in 911 fund reimbursements from the state, according to county Councilman John McBlain.

Delaware County officials requested that the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) reimburse the county about $8.1 million in wireless E-911 funding and the county was awarded $7.4 million. However, the county will only end up receiving about $4.6 million from the state, according to McBlain.

A spokeswoman for PEMA said 911 funding, whether from wireless or landline funds, is disbursed to counties based on the formulas and guidelines established in state law.

McBlain said the problem is that Delaware County sends more wireless funds to PEMA than some of the other counties in Pennsylvania. The state divvies up the wireless funds and some of Delaware County’s funds may end up going to other counties that cannot fully fund their 911 Centers, according to McBlain. As a result, Delaware County does not always get the entire amount of its wireless fees back.

While Barrar’s proposal is not a direct fix to address Delaware County’s 911 funding shortfall, McBlain said it would help if rural counties consolidate their services. He does not believe larger counties in southeastern Pennsylvania, like Delaware County, will regionalize their services because the 911 Centers here are already large enough here and don’t have a need for consolidation.

McBlain believes Barrar’s proposal is a step in the right direction.

“Steve has recognized this problem and is working to solve it,” he said.

Barrar said the focus of his bill is to authorize PEMA to encourage consolidation of 911 systems and shared services.

“It’s what we’re looking at first before we look at the possibility of raising cellphone fees,” he said.

Jonathan Hansen, director of the PEMA 911 Office in Harrisburg, said Barrar’s proposal would not add any new revenue to the state’s 911 fund.

“What we’re hoping to see is regionalization which would allow for sharing of equipment,” he said.

Hansen said PEMA’s goal is to encourage counties to connect to a network in their region. If counties join a network, they will be able to share equipment which would allow them to cut down on other costs to operate their 911 systems, he said. Some regions of the state, such as southwestern and central northwest, are already moving forward with consolidation efforts, according to Hansen.

Back in 2002, Delaware County became the first emergency center in the state to enable subscribers of wireless telephone systems with GPS capabilities to have their name, call back number and location pinpointed on a call taker’s map when they make an emergency 911 call anywhere in the county.